Best Cloud Storage for Companies 2018

Since the Internet’s beginning, companies have always had a need to store data securely. However, in the last five years, cloud storage has become cheap and feasible enough to replace senior solutions more efficiently.

These days, it’s just cheaper and more advantageous for a company to use cloud services instead of managing their infrastructures.

Before cloud technologies started saving companies a lot of time and money, the only real solution to safeguarding data was to set up a local file server — or use tape-based backup solutions. But these ideas had a lot of strings attached to them, making them both poor options. The first problem with a local file server is that it can only be accessed locally.

Once an employee goes home – or travels to any off-site location – files become inaccessible. After this problem’s discovery, a lot of businesses started building their in-house VPN tunnels back to their corporate network, in an effort to provide secure access for remote workers.

While this solution certainly has its merits, it still a clunky solution at best. Which is where cloud storage jumps into the fray, to save the day, by helping companies:

Decrease hardware investments

Decrease management overhead

Enhance productivity

Gives more mobility via anywhere-data-access

Increase collaboration

Decrease expenditure costs

With that understanding, let’s take a closer look at other advantages of cloud storage over traditional solutions.

Why Cloud Storage For Companies is Better Than Traditional Solutions

Just imagine the hardware costs alone of advanced security appliances, capable of terminating tens or hundreds of VPN accounts; it’s a budgeting nightmare! Fortunately, cloud services can decrease system administrators’ workloads, while simultaneously sparing companies vast amounts of money so that a budget can get spent on more useful endeavors.

Now a company doesn’t have to invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in expensive hardware and personnel costs. Instead, data storage gets offered as a service in the cloud, and employees can access data anywhere, anytime and from any device. Plus, the burden of keeping up with changing technology and disaster recovery is placed on the cloud storage provider, not the company so the enterprise can focus on their core business.

Companies not only spend less money and enhance productivity when using cloud storage, but they can also scale services for their users a lot better. Because the service provider’s network of storage servers is already built to serve a higher capacity of users, than any company already has, they don’t have to worry about expansion.

Now that we’ve pointed out, in brief, why cloud storage is the 21st-century solution to data retention and security, let’s take a look at the top five cloud storage options that provide that very service.

Autotask Workplace

Autotask Workplace is a great enterprise file syncing and sharing service, which sports increased mobility and better security than consumer-grade solutions. Autotask Workplace is a natural fit for companies since it’s designed as a business-grade cloud storage service.

Public links can be created so that anybody with the link can access a file or folder.

All of their secure file transfer, syncing and sharing solutions were custom tailored with professional applications in mind. That’s one reason why they take such great measures to ensure compliance with regulations like HIPAA. And they allow file access, independent of a user’s physical location.

An administrator can access high-level control, regarding which users can access, read, and overwrite various files. And the administrator can also aggregate users into groups to apply for group permissions.

Other Reasons Why We Like Autotask Workplace

One of the better benefits Autotask Workplace provides to companies is their integration with standard business software and information systems like, Active Directory, SSO/SAML 2.0, Office 365, Outlook Salesforce and Google Docs.

Also, their security mechanisms are very tunable and highly customizable.

Egnyte

Egnyte offers a unique take on traditional storage. Instead of being a cloud-only company, it provides a hybrid solution of both private and public clouds. Companies will love how customizable Egnyte’s interface is, as it helps give the appearance of unity, to internal employees and external partners.

Egnyte understands that businesses need failsafe ways to restrict data access. So they created useful and robust security checks, which allow administrators to aggregate users into groups.

Then, the administrator can apply group or individual access permissions. Also, they provide an auditing system so managers can track each and every file operation. And of course, they do encrypt data both in transit and while it gets stored on their servers.

Other Reasons Why We Like Egnyte

An administrator can change the interface’s look, by adding logos, branding, custom message headers and alter URLs for a custom domains.

Egnyte

Egnyte also has some fantastic security mechanisms designed to control and secure a company’s files and documents.

Sync.com

Based out of Canada, companies don’t need to fear the NSA snooping around for private information, when it’s stored on Sync.com and they even encrypt data end-to-end via zero-knowledge security.

They’ll even help restore files that have been deleted, so your company will never lose mission-critical data again. They offer two different business plans. The first one only costs $49.00 per year for 500GB of storage. For business users who need more storage space, they offer an upgraded plan that costs $98.00 per year for 2TB.

Other Reasons Why We Like Sync.com

Sync.com is a clear winner and a good fit for companies who distrust US based firms. Sync.com also provide the ability to perform automatic backups.

SugarSync

SugarSync is a good (if at times slow), file syncing service with backup and decent collaboration features. SugarSync is a great fit for companies, thanks to its secure file sharing features, and collaboration mechanisms, that will help enhance the workforce’s productivity.

Though SugarSync isn’t a zero-knowledge provider; they do protect data in transit to their servers with TLS encryption and encrypt data with AES-256 for storage, on their servers. And the “magic briefcase” feature of their service is a shared folder like you would find with Dropbox.

Users cannot sync files locally across a LAN, but they do include fantastic ancillary features such as the ability to prioritize file transfers, moderate backup mechanisms, and fast servers.

Other Reasons Why We Like SugarSync

They are a clear leader in the cloud storage industry. If you want to get a feel for their service before paying a subscription, they do offer a 90 day 5GB option.

SugarSync makes it a snap to share and sync data across an unlimited number of devices.

ShareFile

Owned by Citrix Systems, ShareFile is a secure enterprise-level file syncing and sharing service. It allows users to choose where to store documents and files securely. Just about every business has heard of Citrix at one point in time or another, and they have a reputation for developing high-quality business-class services.

Furthermore, their service integrates with other services such as Active Directory and SSO.

Conclusion

There’s never been a better time for companies to take advantage of cloud services. In fact, several years ago, there wasn’t as much competition and as large of a selection of cloud storage services, that streamline their service for professional use as there is today.

Not only will cloud storage help add functionality and value to a company, in the form of enhanced productivity and mobility, but it will also contribute to saving tremendous amounts of money. If you want to try out a service before buying it, many providers offer a free trial in some capacity.

So feel free to take advantage of it. Also, don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section down below.